arXiv:1111.5085 · Physical Review B
Projection operator approach to the Bose-Hubbard model
Anirban Dutta, C. Trefzger, K. Sengupta
Abstract
We develop a projection operator formalism for studying both the zero-temperature equilibrium phase diagram and the nonequilibrium dynamics of the Bose-Hubbard model. Our work, which constitutes an extension of that of Trefzger and Sengupta [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 095702 (2011)], shows that the method provides an accurate description of the equilibrium zero-temperature phase diagram of the Bose-Hubbard model for several lattices in two and three dimensions. We show that the accuracy of this method increases with the coordination number ${z}_{0}$ of the lattice and reaches to within $0.5%$ of quantum Monte Carlo data for lattices with ${z}_{0}=6$. We compute the excitation spectra of the bosons using this method in the Mott and the superfluid phases and compare our results with mean-field theory. We also show that the same method may be used to analyze the nonequilibrium dynamics of the model both in the Mott phase and near the superfluid-insulator quantum critical point where the hopping amplitude $J$ and the on-site interaction $U$ satisfy ${z}_{0}J/U\ensuremath{\ll}1$. In particular, we study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the model both subsequent to a sudden quench of the hopping amplitude $J$ and during a ramp from ${J}_{i}$ to ${J}_{f}$ characterized by a ramp time $\ensuremath{\tau}$ and exponent $\ensuremath{\alpha}$: $J(t)={J}_{i}+({J}_{f}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{i}){(t/\ensuremath{\tau})}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$. We compute the wave function overlap $F$, the residual energy $Q$, the superfluid order parameter $\ensuremath{\Delta}(t)$, the equal-time order parameter correlation function $C(t)$, and the defect formation probability $P$ for the above-mentioned protocols and provide a comparison of our results to their mean-field counterparts. We find that $Q$, $F$, and $P$ do not exhibit the expected universal scaling. We explain this absence of universality and show that our results for linear ramps compare well with the recent experimental observations.